The Final Post

It is amazing how quickly things go by, but the season has officially ended and we are back in Indiana. This season was a great introduction to the Florida season and I got to experience some great things while there. 
This was my very first time ever getting to be in Wellington/Loxahatchee for the season so I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I am a big plan person so it was all a bit nerve wracking to come down without too much knowledge of the area and what to expect. I got lucky to be able to live on property where my horses were kept at Laura Ashley Dressage in Deer Run– I am a bit of a helicopter “mom” so this really eased my concerns a lot. 
I really wanted to primarily focus this season on training more so than competitions, but Wellington is so lovely to be able to compete at because everything is so close. My sessions with Oded were really eye opening and changed many ways I looked at training my horses. From the get go Oded pinpointed that our focus for the season would be on developing the pirouettes and improving the trot and canter quality. We spent many sessions systematically working towards addressing the issues in these areas and improving the connection and understanding of them. I’d say as a rider the biggest takeaway was training systematically so that the horses are properly prepared to do the movements and confident enough to try to do them and improve them. Additionally, I found that the little changes to the way I rode strongly impacted the horses in a positive way– it was very helpful to have someone so educated to be able to give these tips and remind me to fix the little things.  
This season made my horse stronger and more capable to do the work, but also made me think more when riding and training. Everything is always connected, so you must always check the basics at the beginning of the session to ensure the harder stuff will be able to be more successful with less turbulence. It was very special to be able to work through the difficult points of our training with Oded and come out feeling more confident and capable to continue the development that we started in Florida. We were able to use what we were learning in our lessons in the show ring and were able to move up to the FEI Intermediate 1 successfully. There is still so much more to come, but I was really pleased by how our work was translating into more successful and rideable tests. 
Apart from lessons, work, and showing, I was able to meet so many great people this season. Being in Wellington for the season is really great because you get to meet people from so many different places who all generally have the same passion– it's incredibly unique! I feel so fortunate for this opportunity and am very thankful to Anne Barber Wallis, Lendon Grey and Dressage4Kids, Oded Shimoni, and many others for helping make this season so successful and an amazing learning experience for me. 

Things I learned from riding in Wellington:

• Being systematic in your training prevents so many disruptions and/or issues in the long term of training
  
• Contact, contact, contact- it's always pushing from the seat to the hand. 
  
• Make your reins even shorter than you are comfortable with when working towards a Grand Prix way of going
  
• In the collected canter you should always feel the extended canter– without this feeling/energy pirouettes are going to become too shut down
  
• Pirouette exercises
  
  • diagonal , collect to pirouette canter, bring haunch slightly over to bend around inside leg, bending with the inside rein and lead the horse around the pirouette with that rein, push with outside leg and dont block with outside rein because it makes the horse too closed when learning
    
  • Half pass- half pirouette-half pass- half pirouette
    
    • The half pass sets up the bendability for the pirouette and keeps the horse from becoming too blocked
      
  • 1/4line haunches in - collect in haunches in- turn ¼ or ½ pirouette- haunches in after
    
  • ¼ pirouette box maintaining collected canter
    
• In the trot you have to find the swing first straight before you ride a shoulder in and half pass– the swing and push in the trot will allow the horse to have better expression in the lateral work
  
• Learning GP half pass line – start from wall 6-6-6, then center line 4-8-8-4 then try the 3-6-6-6-3. 
  
• When training 1 tempi changes ride 4’s, 3’s, 2’s and then if successful do 2 1 tempis and build from there
  
• Ride 1 tempis when teaching just as if you were riding them on a schoolmaster
  
• The neck must be rideable – if you need it to go down or up the contact should allow for the horse to do this without changing the overall balance. 
  
• Dont bring your hands back- keep reins short and drive the horse to the half halt. 
  
• Keep the hindlegs busy when collecting, watch that the neck does not come higher unless it is desired
  
• When warming up make sure the horse is supple in the jaw and in front of the leg 
  

Things I learned in regard to just going to Wellington for the season:

• Do not in fact try to make that drive in one day because if it can go wrong it will
  
• Hay quality is vastly different then what we have up north and it can be very hit and miss so if your horse is picky you may struggle
  
  
• Everything is pretty much about a 20-30min drive, whether you are going to a lesson or the grocery store. Plan to make your errand run in one day to save on fuel cost especially if you are driving a truck all season
  
• Turnout is much smaller and much more limited so always check with the facility which you are boarding at
  
• The bugs are something else and it doesn't matter if you turnout day or night
  
• Riding early in the day is the way to go for those of us who don't like 90 degrees
  
• Preplan your jobs/etc – this is hard to do as many don't hire until they are down for the season, but the first couple of weeks are chaotic enough 
  
• Scheduling is very relaxed and last minute, make sure you are flexible and understanding